A Southeastern Baffin Thule House with Ruin Island Characteristics
ABSTRACT. A prehistoric house depression excavated on the southeastern coast of Baffin Island near Lake Harbour belongs stylistically to an early phase of the Thule Period. However, features such as the rectangular shape, interior open-fire kitchens, and initial absence of a sleeping platform are mo...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.459.2554 http://arctic.synergiesprairies.ca/arctic/index.php/arctic/article/viewFile/2514/2491/ |
| Summary: | ABSTRACT. A prehistoric house depression excavated on the southeastern coast of Baffin Island near Lake Harbour belongs stylistically to an early phase of the Thule Period. However, features such as the rectangular shape, interior open-fire kitchens, and initial absence of a sleeping platform are more characteristic of the early High Arctic Ruin Island phase than of developed Thule. This, and additional evidence from Foxe Basin and Frobisher Bay, suggest that a segment of the earliest Thule migration may have split from the main body in Lancaster Sound and, travelling south through Fury and Hecla Strait, reached Hudson Strait and the south coast of Baffin Island. This suggestion is in oppqsition to earlier interpretations of a slow penetration into the more southerly eastern part of the Canadian Archipelago from the northeastern High Arctic. RkSUMk. Une structure de creusement prthistorique fouillte pr&s du Lac Harbour, sur la cate sud-est de la Terre de B a t h e, est associke au point de vue du style B une phase ancienne de la #riode thultene. Cependant, les amknagements particuliers tels la forme rectangulaire, les cuisines interieures &feu ouvert, l’absence au dtbut d’une plateforme de couchage, sont plus caracteristiques de la phase ancienne de “quin Island ” en Haut Arctique que de la “phase devkloppte ” de la culture thulkene. En tenant compte de donnees supplementakes provenant du Bassin de Foxe et de la Baie de Frobisher, ceci suggbre: qu’une partie de la migration thulkene pourrait s’être divisCe de la population principale dans le bras-mer de Lancaster et, ensuite, &re anivee au dttroit d’Hudson et sur la c te sud-est de Baffin en passant par le d6troit de Fury et Hecla. Cette suggestion est en opposition avec les interprktations anttrieures d’une penttration lente des regions plus pu sud de l’Archipel Canadien oriental I I partir du nord-ouest du Haut Arctique. Traduit par Ian Badgley, Universite du Qutbec B Montreal. |
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